25/01/2008 | Session
The new protocol to the Biomedicine Convention spelling out the steps governments must take to regulate the new field of genetic testing is a satisfactory text which protects the rights of patients, PACE said in an opinion adopted today, on the basis of a report by Wolfgang Wodarg (Germany, SOC). Under the protocol, genetic tests must be for health reasons only, supervised by a doctor, and accompanied by counselling, while the results of the tests must be subject to strong data protection.
25/01/2008 | Session
In the 1980s, in response to the public’s growing sense of insecurity and the demand for more effective crime prevention and punishment, video surveillance started spreading from private and semi-private premises into public areas. Its impact on crime has never been proven, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) now sees it as a possible threat to human rights because of its impact on privacy and data security.
25/01/2008 | Session
Member states should give local and regional authorities the powers, tools and cash to enable them to work together and to further develop transfrontier co-operation, the Assembly said today. According to parliamentarians, the Council’s own bodies should speed up or expand their work in this area, while the EU should continue to fund worthwhile joint projects, including ones at its own outer frontiers.
24/01/2008 | Session
The recent crisis preceding Georgia’s presidential election has overshadowed the “numerous positive steps” it has taken to fulfil its Council of Europe obligations, the organisation’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) said today. Debating Georgia’s record following an address by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, the parliamentarians said there had been substantial reforms of the most important institutions, and a significant number of commitments had been fulfilled.
24/01/2008 | Session
Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, and Andrew McIntosh (United Kingdom, SOC), Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Media of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), declared today at a press conference that European states must do more to protect media freedom. Freedom of expression and information in the media was a vital element of any functioning democracy.
24/01/2008 | Session
“I would like to express my great relief and satisfaction at the early liberation of Dimitri Dashkevich,” said Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE), rapporteur of PACE Political Affairs Committee on the situation in Belarus, commenting on Wednesday’s early release of the leader of the non-registered organisation Malady Front, who had been serving a prison sentence in Belarus.
24/01/2008 | Session
Meeting this week in Strasbourg, PACE today warned that the unprecedented increase in the economic emphasis placed on certain professional sports – particularly in connection with TV retransmission rights – was becoming a threat to Europe’s democratic vision of sport as something open to everyone.
24/01/2008 | Session
UEFA President Michel Platini has given his firm backing to the report by Assembly member José Luís Arnaut on the need to protect European sport from a range of threats often linked to over-commercialisation. Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly on Thursday 24 January, Mr Platini urged legislators to respect the specific nature of European sport and emphasised the key role of federations in promoting sporting cohesion and participatory democracy.
24/01/2008 | Session
In a recommendation unanimously adopted today, PACE called for the easing of international adoption rules. PACE recommended a revision of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, to secure harmonisation in this area and greater flexibility, while continuing to ensure that children's rights are respected.
24/01/2008 | Session
Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia, said today that his government is committed to "building a stable and healthy state, one based not on personalities but on robust democratic institutions". In a speech to the Assembly, he said the last presidential elections were the first to be "truly competitive"; although he admitted the electoral process can be improved. He declared that in Abkhazia and South Ossetia systematic abuses of human rights continue today, and the solutions Georgia offers to the problems in these regions guarantee the integrity of the State, self governance and the protection of human freedoms.
23/01/2008 | Session
The Assembly today offered the states having observer status with the Council of Europe much broader opportunities to be involved in its work, but also suggested they be invited to voluntarily commit to a mutually-agreed set of standards. Future applicants for observer status could be expected make formal commitments to basic Council of Europe values, the parliamentarians suggested.
23/01/2008 | Session
On the occasion of the wreath-Laying ceremony, PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig declared:"This Sunday, we will remember the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This concentration camp is a symbol of how the extermination of human beings was brought to perverted perfection. The murder of millions of people because of their Jewish or other ethnic origin, their religious beliefs, their political views or sexual orientation illustrates the darkest period of our history.